Schembechler kept his eye on Rangers’ Ward
If Aaron Ward ever earns his Michigan degree, it’ll be thanks to Bo Schembechler’s prodding.
Ward, the New York Rangers defenseman, got a phone call from his wife last week after the death of the longtime Michigan football coach.
“I think the most meaningful interaction came after I was a pro,” Ward said of his many meetings with Schembechler. “Bo invited me to his golf tournament. … We had just won the Stanley Cup, and it wasn’t, ‘Hey, Aaron congratulations on the Stanley Cup.’ He looked at me, plain as day, put his hand out and said, ‘When are you going to finish your degree?’ There was no congratulations.”
Ward, who won his first two Cups with Detroit and another last season with Carolina, always shuddered when Schembechler asked him each time they met about the 24 credits he needed to graduate.
Schembechler already had moved on when Ward got to Ann Arbor in 1990. Playing under longtime hockey coach Red Berenson, Ward got a taste of what it might’ve been like to be coached by Schembechler.
“Bo set a standard by which the coaches of every varsity program or the people in the athletic department held themselves to,” said Ward, who attended every Michigan football game during the NHL lockout. “You do it as a team. Team, team, team. You hold yourself to a certain level, and you do it the right way.
“Once you’ve left the university, and even though you weren’t part of the football program, you’re still a member of that university and a member of that athletic department and you have deep ties.”
All-Star voting
Alex Ovechkin (63,921) and Sidney Crosby (83,664), in their second NHL seasons after finishing 1-2 for the rookie of the year award, hold the top two spots again – this time in Eastern Conference All-Star team voting.
Veteran defensemen Scott Niedermayer (75,340) and Anaheim teammate Chris Pronger (70,733) are the leading vote-getters in the West.
More than 2.8 million votes have been cast in voting that will determine the starting lineups for the Jan. 24 All-Star game in Dallas.
Due to the 2005 lockout and the Olympics last season, the NHL will be staging an All-Star celebration for the first time since 2004.
Ice chips
When Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan scored in the New York Rangers’ 4-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, it marked the first time since Detroit’s Brett Hull and Steve Yzerman on March 21, 2004, that 600-goal scoring teammates connected in the same game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. With his 602nd career goal, Jagr passed Jari Kurri to become the most prolific European-born scorer in NHL history. … Edmonton and the Rangers were the only teams not in action the night before Thanksgiving. … Anaheim went 15-2-5 through the first quarter of the season, earning 35 points compared to the 20 they had through 22 games last season (8-10-4). That was the NHL’s largest gain, topping Buffalo, which went from 23 points to 35.